Ottoman baroque
Ottoman Baroque (also Turkish Baroque , Ottoman or Turkish Rococo ) is a controversial term for an era in Ottoman art history that, according to the art historian Celal Esad (1875–1971), lasted from 1730 to 1808. The term Ottoman Baroque has been familiar since the middle of the 20th century through the work of the architect Doğan Kuban's, but has been increasingly criticized since the 1980s.
The name traditionally stood for the 18th century , when the Ottoman Empire increasingly opened up to Western, European influences, even if the extent of these contacts was long overestimated. In fact, however, baroque influences were already noticeable in architecture and the graphic and plastic arts since the middle of the 18th century, especially in the Nuruosmaniye Mosque , which, however, was to remain a rather unique experiment. For the layperson, however, this influence is hardly noticeable, since the Ottoman mosque architecture did not (yet) undergo any radical change during this period.
However, innovations in the decoration are noticeable. In fact, it is the Ottoman fountain that is going through a revolutionary development in the 18th century. From a purely functional building, it becomes an independent, often free-standing monument, and reflects an eclectic mix of decorative elements from both the Ottoman and Islamic repertoire and the European Baroque and Rococo forms (such as cartouches ). As a decorative style, the so-called Ottoman Baroque spread relatively quickly, especially after the 18th century, also in the provinces.
The prelude to the so-called Ottoman Baroque was the so-called tulip time (Turkish: lâle devri ) from 1718 to 1730 under Sultan Ahmed III in the older art historiography . , which derived its name from the preference for the representation of the tulip. In fact, the tulip time was possibly a politically determined invention of the 20th century, and not a self-designation in this period. That Ahmed III. In the Kâğıthane district of Istanbul, who built Saadâbad Palace based on the model of Versailles , is now considered a myth. Contemporary buildings in Safavid Persia, as well as previous buildings in Edirne, which was the temporary residence of the Sultan until 1703, are likely to have served as models.
According to legends, the Nuruosmaniye Mosque , the iconic building of the so-called Ottoman Baroque, was built according to Western models, which would have earned the Sultan the disapproval of conservative sections of society. Like the Versailles theory about Saadâbad, there are no Ottoman sources for these events. Later historians, so the criticism, would have orientated themselves too much on the travel reports of European tourists, who, with regard to their audience at home, would have included something too uncritically in their notes or even invented them.
The designation of this epoch as decadent and as a phase of decline is hardly shared by art historians today.
literature
- C. Erimtan: Ottomans Looking West? - The Origins of the Tulip Age and Its Development in Modern Turkey. London 2007.
- Tulip time. In: Lexicon of Art. Volume 7. Leipzig 1994, pp. 446f.
- J. Carswell: From the tulip to the rose. In: T. Naff, R. Owen (Eds.): Studies in 18th century Islamic history. Carbondale, Edwardsville 1977.